Digital cameras, optical image scanners, digital copiers, digital facsimile machines, etc. all use arrays of photosensors to convert a visible image into an electronic form suitable for copying, storing, or processing by a computer. Photosensor arrays, particularly color photosensor arrays, commonly have performance parameters that are characterized before product manufacturing. The parameters, or appropriate compensation values, are commonly stored in non-volatile memory within imaging devices using the photosensor arrays. For example, color measurement values with three non-ideal filter spectral bands can be linearly transformed, using a three by three color transformation matrix, into measurement values that approximate what is needed for the human visual system. If the filter characteristics are consistent from array to array, the filters can be characterized once, and the resulting color transformation matrix values can be stored in non-volatile memory within the imaging device. However, filter characteristics, or other parameters of interest, may vary from vendor to vendor, or may vary among arrays from different part families. There is a general need to be able to use parts from different vendors, or parts from one vendor but from different part families. Accordingly, there is a need for electronic identification of a photosensor array, so that an imaging device using the array can determine which parameters or compensation values are appropriate for the array.